The present invention relates to electrostatographic reproducing apparatus and more particularly to cleaning apparatus for removing and storing residual toner cleaned from an imaging surface used therein.
In an electrostatographic reproducing apparatus commonly in use today, a photoconductive insulating member is typically charged to uniform potential and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to be reproduced. The exposure discharges the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas and creates an electrostatic latent image on the member which corresponds to the image areas contained within the usual document. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface is made visible by developing the image with developing powder referred to in the art as toner. Most development systems employ a developer material which comprises both charged carrier particles and charged toner particles which triboelectrically adhere to the carrier particles. During development the toner particles are attracted from the carrier particles by the charge pattern of the image areas in the photoconductive insulating area to form a powder image on the photoconductive area. This image may subsequently be transferred to a support surface such as copy paper to which it may be permanently affixed by heating or by the application of pressure.
In commercial applications several different types of techniques have been used in the prior art to clean and store residual toner material remaining on the imaging surface following transfer of the toner image to the copy sheet. For example, rotating brushes and cleaning webs have been used to remove the toner from the imaging surface. In addition magnetic brushes have been used in the cleaning of an imaging surface of magnetically attractable toner particles. Furthermore, blade cleaners have become increasingly popular in recent years due to their simplicity in construction and high degree of effectiveness in removing residual toner. Cleaning blades may be used in either a wiping or a chiseling configuration. To insure continuous operation of automatic reproducing equipment using electrostatographic processes, it is necessary that any cleaned toner material from the photoreceptor be contained within the cleaning housing and not distributed throughout the machine. Loose toner particles throughout the machne can be contaminates with regard to corona charging devices, and the imaging slit, for example, and may appear as background deposits on the photoreceptor and may otherwise tend to foul mechanical operation of the machine resulting in poor quality copies produced from the apparatus. Accordingly, there has been a long desire to seal off the toner contained within the cleaner housing.